When the Democratic members of the Indiana House of Representatives boycotted the session in order to prevent a quorum and stall Republican initiatives of which they disapproved, the House imposed fines against them for failing to attend. However, they also went a step further and collected those fines by means of submitting a pay grid to the State Auditor that deducted the amount of the fines from the pay of the offending members. This appeared to be in violation of IC 22-2-4 (Wage Payment Statute), IC 22-2-8-1 (prohibiting an employer from imposing fines and deducting them from a paycheck), and IC 22-2-6 (regulating assignments of wages).

In Berry v. Crawford, a 3-2 majority of the Indiana Supreme Court has declined to say whether the withholding was or was not in violation of these statutes because it’s a legislative matter and, therefore, separation of powers prevents the judiciary from interfering. I agree with that proposition on the issue of whether the fines were properly imposed. I find the court’s reasoning unpersuasive when dealing with the more mundane issue of debt collection. For example, if Speaker Bosma had broken into Pat Bauer’s house and grabbed handfuls of cash to pay the debt, I doubt the judiciary would regard itself as powerless to interfere? I can’t blame them too much for ducking the question though. Following the letter of those laws and leaving the Democrats with triple damages plus attorney’s fees (less the amount of the fines) – turning a profit from the exercise – would have been a political shit storm.

Updated to add a bit more detail on the idea of triple damages:
An employer who violates the wage payment statute winds up owing an employee three times the amount of the wages due. IC 22-2-5-2 adds, in addition to the base wages due, liquidated damages of 10% per day late capped at double the wages plus attorney’s fees. So, after twenty days, an employer would owe the base wage plus 200% of the wages.

I figure the way it would have worked is that the violation of the Wage Payment statute would have been triple damages, but the fines themselves would still be valid and the legislators would have had to pay that back. After paying the fine, the bolting legislators would have ended up with double the money.

Derek Pillie, writing at Hoosier Access (a conservative blog on Indiana politics for those who are unfamiliar), has an entry on Rep. Marlin Stutzman’s activity with respect to the federal Farm Bill. The blog post cites an article by Gary Truitt in Hoosier Agriculture.

Two main parts of the Farm Bill typically get a lot of attention: the food stamp program and the subsidies and payments to farmers and agricultural interests. Pillie has an interesting construct in describing an amendment proposed by Stutzman. “Yesterday he filed amendments with the House Rules Committee that would split off entitlement programs from the agriculture programs.”

I presume “entitlement” programs are those with money for Them while “agriculture” programs are those with money for Us. Stutzman is certainly one of the “Us,” having received about $200,000 in farm welfare assistance for his own agricultural interests. Farmers are hard working and good whereas food stamp recipients are lazy and bad. That’s the economic morality play narrative that underlies the politics of this thing anyway. In my mind, the distinction between government money given to agricultural interests and government money given to feed people is tenuous and largely artificial. If you want to insist that non-farmers earn their own way or starve, then you probably ought to insist that agricultural interests profit or perish.

As I understand the conjoined history of the farm subsidies and food stamp program, it was a fairly simple proposition at first. We have farmers who can’t make money, and we have hungry people who need food. Lets give farmers money for their food and give food to hungry people. Divide that house, and both sides will probably fall. And, if you’re a small government purist, that’s probably a good thing. Otherwise, it probably looks like a recipe for unnecessary suffering all around.

So, today is a day for reflecting on the significance of fatherhood. Which I will do by ignoring my kids while I write a blog post. Perhaps I’ve already failed!

The experience has certainly changed me. I don’t think any other experience would have been sufficient to mature me from adolescent into adult. I mean, I was already chronologically an adult well before having children, but my mental space was less serious, less focused, and too self-centered to really be considered adult.

Fatherhood is about sacrifice and leadership: sacrificing your own immediate self-interests for others; and considering their well-being such that you can lead them into a happy life of their own. Of course, long-term, this seems to be more rewarding to my own self-interest than if I had not become a father. (Not least of all because I got a Fry Daddy for Father’s Day!)

Thinking about it, I’d go beyond the family, and suggest that developing these qualities of sacrifice and leadership are beneficial to the health of the community at large. I look around Tippecanoe County and see that it is a thriving community in no small part because of those men I know (women too – but this is Father’s Day) who spend their time, energy, and money on projects that help the community even without being immediately beneficial to the particular individual.

And, again, these efforts have a tendency to provide long term rewards to the individual who finds himself with a fuller and more balanced sense of self coupled with, not incidentally, a better place to live; whether that better place is a vibrant, active household or a vibrant, active community or – ideally – both.

The Indiana Youth Group, a pro-gay organization that raised the ire of anti-gay legislators by getting a license plate sanctioned by the BMV has won a round in a legal battle over the plates. As a condition of having the plates issued, the group entered into a service contract with the BMV. Apparently digging for an excuse to terminate the plate, the BMV took issue with IYG’s practice of offering low numbered license plates as an incentive for increased donations. (The real problem some Indiana lawmakers had with the group was their advocacy for gay rights.)

In any case, an Administrative Law Judge found that the low plate incentive was a violation of the contract. However, the proper remedy under the contract was not termination but, rather, notice of the violation with a thirty day opportunity to cure the problem and comply with the contract. (Selling or auctioning the plate apparently did carry a consequence of immediate termination but the ALJ decided that the incentive was not a sale or auction.) I doubt that will be popular with the lawmakers who objected to the plate and the decision makers at the BMV. They almost certainly didn’t care a great deal about the low plate incentive so much as they wanted an excuse to kill the plate.

The BMV has until, I believe, June 15, 2013 to appeal the ruling.

Glenn Greenwald, writing for the Guardian, reported on a FISA court order that Verizon provide the NSA access to all of its telephone call records.

I didn’t much care for this sort of thing in 2005 when the Washington Post reported on the resignation of a FISA court judge who disagreed with President Bush conducting warrantless wiretaps on U.S. Citizens. I was also unimpressed when the House, including our current governor, shut down a hearing on the PATRIOT ACT while witnesses opposed to the act were in the midst of testifying.

I didn’t much care for it in 2006 when the Electronic Frontier Foundation was trying to file a class action pertaining to AT&T’s Room 641A where the NSA was allegedly using AT&T facilities to wiretap and data-mine massive amounts of information passing through there. That suit was dismissed based on the State’s Secret Privilege.

In 2007, I was mad at Hoosier Democrats for voting to increase the government’s wiretapping authority.

However, as the years passed, and few people seemed to care, I have sort of lapsed into apathy. Now I’m supposed to care? If lawmakers shut down this kind of authority for the government, I’m all for it. But, I’m not going to act as if this is some sort of new outrage.

And, in fact, my apathy is also based on a sense of inevitability. I think we’re in the Panopticon now. Maybe the idea of privacy is a relatively short lived concept for humans. In the days of the tribe and the village, I can’t imagine humans had much in the way of privacy. Everybody basically knew everything about everyone. Perhaps that’s where we’re headed again. The real danger comes from lack of parity in information. Maybe it’s less important to restrict the access of the government to data about us and increase our access to data about the government.

I am slipping back into normal after a solid vacation. The family & I visited some friends in Rapid City, SD; went and visited my sister in the Boulder, CO area; and went to visit my old college roommate in the Denver, CO area. Along the way, I spent a great deal more time with my wife and kids than during the typical work week and was pleased to find that – contra the norms set by the modern sitcom family – my wife & I seem to really like each other, and my kids seem to be developing into remarkable people. We managed 7 hiking days which the kids definitely enjoyed:

Poet’s Table near Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park, South Dakota. A little detour off the trail to Little Devil’s Tower. Apparently in 1969, some hippies hauled a table up to a little alcove in the rocks. We had a picnic up there and the kids (with some assistance from me) left a poem as is the custom of the place.

Jewel Cave National Monument. My daughter really likes caves, so this third longest cave system in the world seemed to fit the bill. We had been to Wind Cave in the area a few years ago. There are also some trails outside the cave which we hiked on to kill time before the cave tour.

Red Rocks Trail near Pearl Street in Boulder. A nice trail that gives you a great view of Boulder.

Rocky Mountain National Park – the winds were out of hand. We’ll call it a hike, but it was really maybe a half mile walk around a water fall.

Eldorado Canyon State Park near Boulder – this was a really neat place, maybe my favorite trail of the vacation. The Fowler Trail has some neat views of the canyon and then opens up into a great view of the plains heading out from the front range.

Lair O’ the Bear trail west of Denver. For us, the most notable part about this outing was less about the trail and more about this cool tree near the trail head. It had branches that demanded climbing. And, so, we did. It’s been a long time since I climbed a tree!

Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. This area is just stunning. We actually managed to get off the more traveled paths and maybe got just the tiniest bit lost for about 15 minutes. It’s nice to get lost every so often.

In addition to the hiking, I also got to become familiar with some craft beers of the Front Range. In particular, I can’t speak highly enough of the Mountain Sun Pub and Brewery. This is on Pearl Street. The beer was great and the service was even better. The staff was so friendly to the kids. (Not necessarily what you expect at a brewery). They seem to have a restaurant brewery model – I didn’t see much distribution of their beer in the area, but maybe I missed it.

The Oskar Blues Brewery is definitely and up and comer. I saw their beers all over, and actually ended up at their bar in Lyons, CO, between Estes Park and Boulder. The bar is kind of a neat place with two stories, a significant band presence, and a video game room featuring some old school games — I haven’t seen Defender in forever. I had the Dale’s Pale Ale a few times and the Old Chub Scotch Ale there at the bar. I’ve been told they are in discussions to distribute in Indiana.

My buddy was a big fan of the Dry Dock Brewery in Aurora and we went there for a pint and to fill up some growlers. Their stuff is definitely good, but I suppose I enjoyed the other two breweries’ offerings a little better.

And, just for good measure, one night I had the Bridal Veil Rye Pale Ale from the Telluride Brewing Company. A couple of other notes on beer: macro-brews have their uses too. Pabst is a fine thing to drink when you are spending several hours in the sun tending to a smoker, and Coors really does taste better near Golden.

So, I’m roaming the country side and have seen some things that confirm my biases. (Imagine that!) Specifically, I’ve long been annoyed by lawmakers who speak as if tax policy is the alpha and omega of economic development. A drive from Rapid City, SD through Wyoming to Boulder, Colorado emphatically demonstrates that isn’t so.

The lightly taxed economic deserts of Wyoming stand in stark contrast to the heavily taxed, booming People’s Republic of Boulder and surrounding areas.

Jobs require people making and doing things for other people. People need things and can make and do things. Taxes influence the people; but first you need to attract the people and otherwise make it some place they want to live.

So, a big tornado ripped through Oklahoma. I still remember the images from 1999 that went through the same area. I can’t imagine living in the path of monsters like that. I know they’re political, and you’re not supposed to mention the political in the wake of tragedies that implicate policy concerns, but some thoughts come to mind:

-It’s good we have a federal government that can channel the resources of the rest of the country to assist people in the various states.

-It feels like big weather events are more common lately which raises concerns about whether any given one is the product of man-made climate change. If so, and if this pattern will get worse, it’s a horrifying prospect.

-However, the feeling of more common weather events might be fueled, in part, by the weather porn industry. The news channels were good at bringing objective information. But, when they start interviewing the victims within hours of the awful event, I can’t continue watching — not because I’m squeamish, but because the media is being ghoulish. (Talking to shell-shocked survivor: “How does it feel to lose everything?”)

-Do you rebuild in this area? If this is a tornado path, does it make sense to, once again, put up structures that might well get crushed by these kinds of town-destroying monsters? If Godzilla rampages through your town once, that’s just bad luck. If he does it again, maybe you think about relocating.

Lee Hamilton has a column in the Evansville Courier Press entitled Battles over bills can go on for years. The former Congressman discusses how passage of major legislation is only the beginning. After that, you have the less transparent business of the rule making process and the courts.

The devil is in the details; and all too frequently, federal legislation does not go that far into the details. Rather, they give a framework and it’s up to the regulatory agencies to adopt rules that flesh out that frame. One problem is that Congress, relatively speaking, operates in the open and under the spotlight; whereas regulatory agencies are much easier to ignore. (There is the old schoolyard put down, “you’re mama’s so broke, she can’t even pay attention!) Even if the the agencies do their business openly, only those with a pretty significant stake in the game have the time and resources to pay attention.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz once famously said, “Nothing ever gets settled in this town.” That is why, as you follow the course of health reform or financial industry reform or any other high-stakes law, it pays to remember that it can take years before it’s really possible to gauge the impact of legislation.

I remember hearing a saying that “freedom of the press belongs to those who are rich enough to own one.” That quote always comes to mind when I hear discussion of a Journalist Shield law or Reporter’s Privilege law.

Of course, now things are a lot murkier than they once were. A lot of citizens are in the reporting business and a lot of reporters are in the entertainment business. So, I’m not sure Indiana’s Journalist Privilege law (linked above) makes much sense in terms of its scope. It applies to:

(1) any person connected with, or any person who has been connected with or employed by (A) a newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals and having a general circulation; or (B) a recognized press association or wire service; as a bona fide owner, editorial or reportorial employee, who receives or has received income from legitimate gathering, writing, editing and interpretation of news; and

(2) any person connected with a licensed radio or television station as owner, official, or as an editorial or reportorial employee who receives or has received income from legitimate gathering, writing, editing, interpreting, announcing or broadcasting of news.

Whether the reporter gets paid for what he or she does really doesn’t say much about the value of what’s reported and whether such reporting needs to be protected.

For similar reasons, I can’t get especially riled up just because a Justice Department subpoena happened to be directed at Associated Press records. Either such subpoena power is good policy when directed at any citizen or not. Paid journalists aren’t special little snowflakes.